LEESBURG — A city police officer has resigned during a departmental investigation of a party at his apartment, where fellow officers may have either smoked marijuana or ignored its use by civilians.

Patrolman David Cofield, who was suspended last week but reinstated a day later after new information surfaced, submitted his letter of resignation to Police Chief Jim Brown.

Cofield worked his final shift Friday and is taking his vacation time until the May 4 effective date of his resignation.

''I am leaving this department because I don't feel that the officers in this department look after each other,'' Cofield wrote in the letter. ''I feel that there is too much resentment among the officers here, and I don't care to work in that type of atmosphere.''

Cofield added that he was ''holding no grudges,'' and wanted to leave the department on ''good terms with everyone.''

Brown said he was saddened to see Cofield go before the final results of an extensive investigaton into the party are complete.

''I don't believe that anybody should resign under the cloud of allegations such as exist in this particular case,'' Brown said. ''At this point in time, it's irrelevant whether the man was guilty or innocent of any wrongdoing; he is stigmatized by resigning. Of course, that's his choice.''

Cofield was one of five officers and a police dispatcher who were present at a party held on the night of April 3. Brown said the party was an ''impromptu, spontaneous gathering'' of police officers and civilians at an apartment on 1504 W. Griffin Road occupied jointly by Cofield and fellow officer Mark Roberts.

Both Cofield and Roberts were suspended last Tuesday when Brown learned from one of his commanders that marijuana was present at the party but the officers were reinstated the next day after he heard conflicting reports of what actually took place.

Brown has been conducting an extensive internal affairs investigation of the matter and expects to have the results completed by the end of the week.

Before the investigation began, Brown said he called Gerard King of the 5th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office to see if criminal prosecution was in order. King said an internal affairs investigation seemed more appropriate since there was no hard evidence to pursue charges.

King said Friday he was satisfied that none of the officers was responsible for bringing the marijuana to the party.

Brown said the penalty for using marijuana could range from a reprimand to a firing or perhaps even a loss of state certification. Such a loss would bar an officer from police work in Florida.

King said those penalties are probably worse than a court could dole out because the maximum criminal charge in this particular case likely would be a misdemeanor.